Good morning,

How many fires do there need to be before people start thinking it is not just a coincidence. Today there is news of seven air-conditioned buses damaged by fire, following hard on the heels of the Santika Pub disaster which has now claimed 64 lives and the fire at the Sua Sa Plaza – and I do believe there was another one a couple of days ago which was not so severe.

Hundreds of Thai Muslims have been protesting outside the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok concerned about the attacks on Gaza by Israeli military forces. They have been burning flags – it reminds me of my days in Abu Dhabi when periodically something would stir up the students and they would march around the campus and burn Israeli flags, leading me to wonder where the flags came from. After all, Israel was not recognised as a state and possession of a flag was probably illegal (I cannot remember exactly) – eventually it turned out that there was a small factory which had a sideline in making these flags on the quiet specifically so that they could be burned by angry people. It’s just business, eh?

More than 50,000 people have lost their jobs in the last year and more than 200,000 will lose them in the near future, according to existing plans as reported by the Labour Welfare and Protection Department. I understand that many firms are trying to hold on to their employees until the New Year (i.e. the Chinese New Year which is to be on January 25^th this year). These job losses are largely in manufacturing – the losses in the tourism industry resulting from the PAD Disaster have yet to be properly reported.

Back tomorrow.